Author: Charlotte Gill

SoftBank invests $20bn in India solar energy

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Tokyo-based telecoms and internet giant SoftBank will join Foxconn and Bharti Enterprises as part of a $20bn solar energy project designed to generate an additional 20GW of capacity. The joint venture falls in step with plans set out recently by prime minister Narendra Modi to improve the nation’s access to clean and reliable energy, particularly for the 300 million people living in energy poverty.

Modi set out a five-year $160bn plan recently to boost renewables

Modi set out a five-year $160bn plan recently to boost renewables, spearheaded by the government and in part by enterprises much like SoftBank. With this and other projects in the pipeline, India’s solar market is on course to expand 250 percent in 2015, that’s according to SoftBank, while the global market is set to outpace the growth in fossil fuels. Yet India’s solar capacity stands at a mere 3.7GW, despite the country’s irradiation levels, rising population and lack of fossil fuel resources lending themselves well to solar development.

“Our eyes are trained on India, given the vast potential that the country offers”, said SoftBank’s chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son. “With this partnership, our goal is to create a market-leading ‎clean energy company, to fuel India’s growth with clean and renewable sources of energy. We have joined hands with Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn, two leaders in their respective markets for this venture that will propel India into the future.”

The $20bn of solar projects aligns also with SoftBank’s commitment to promote and expand the use of renewable energy. In 2011, the company established SB Energy Corp to facilitate the expansion of renewables in Japan, and the group’s mega solar plants at Kyoto and Shinto-mura have done much to lift the country’s competitiveness in this field.

The timeline for the India investments is as yet unclear, and depends on government cooperation and on the availability of land in the coming months.

Apple’s music royalty policy gets challenged

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Pressure from a host of record companies did not work, but an open letter from Taylor Swift has, causing Apple to reverse its policy of not paying royalties during the free trial period of its music streaming service. In a blog post entitled, “To Apple, Love Taylor,” which was published on June 21, Swift announced that she will withdraw her quadruple-platinum selling album, 1989, from Apple Music.

Stockholm-based Spotify, it is not in a position to lose favour with influential members of the music industry

Apple Music, which is due to launch on June 30, hopes to gain a strong foothold in the rapidly growing music-streaming market through offering higher royalties to artists, thereby providing a large library of music to subscribers. Apple has promised to pay 71.5 percent for royalties in the US and 73 percent elsewhere, Spotify on the other hand pays 70 percent in royalties. In addition, unlike Spotify, Apple Music will not offer a permanent free service, nor an ad-supported tier – a model that Apple says will earn more revenue for record labels and music publishers.

After Apple announced plans to not pay royalties during the free trial of its $9.99 monthly subscription service, arguing that more will be gained in the long term, widespread criticism throughout the industry was voiced. Among those panning Apple’s decision was a series of independent trade bodies from various countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany and Australian, who argued that the move would cause a three month loss of earnings as customers temporarily switched from Apple’s iTunes in order to benefit from the free service.

Shortly after Swift’s post was published, a public statement was sent via Twitter from Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, stating that the company will pay for all music featured on the service, including that on offer during the free trial for customers.

As Apple is entering a space that is already highly competitive and led by one of the first in the industry, Stockholm-based Spotify, it is not in a position to lose favour with influential members of the music industry. Therefore, Apple has quickly reversed its decision before further backlash was felt prior to the product’s upcoming launch.

Carlyle Group plugs $500m into Magna Energy

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

The Carlyle Group, the US-based global asset management firm which specialises in private equity, is to invest $500m in Magna Energy to expand its operations in the Indian subcontinent. As the press release notes: “Magna is targeting the building of acreage positions in the Indian Subcontinent, with the objective of creating a full-cycle oil and gas company through acquisitions and local licensing rounds. Magna’s primary focus will be development and production with a secondary focus on exploration.”

The funds for the investment will be drawn from Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP)

Magna is a UK-based energy firm, led by industry veterans Dr Mike Watts and Jann Brown who, according to Carlyle Group “have 60 years’ combined experience in the oil industry”. The coming together of the two firms will see “Magna’s expertise combined with additional capital and significant industry knowledge from Carlyle.” According to the press release, the outcome of the deal will be the “develop[ment of] the local oil and gas industry across the Indian Subcontinent, leading to greater energy security, job creation and economic growth”.

The funds for the investment will be drawn from Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP), an oil and gas exploration and production fund that also focuses on refining and marketing in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Managing Director and Head of CIEP Marcel van Poecke and Managing Director Bob Magui will lead the initiative.

Watts and Brown are quoted as saying they are “delighted CIEP has agreed to support the Magna leadership team with a significant equity investment as we seek to build our business across South Asia – a region we both know well. We believe there is strong growth potential in countries such as India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, which seek to grow their local energy markets”.

China bets on cross-border e-commerce

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has unveiled a series of policy guidelines that, if passed, would loosen the shackles on cross-border e-commerce and give foreign investors more of a reason to take an interest. The decision arrived in a distinctly lacklustre period of growth for the world’s number two economy, and by reducing its dependence on manufacturing and boosting services, the government is hoping for better things in the years ahead.

China’s online spending will cross the $1trn mark before 2019

The guidelines include accommodating tax policies and measures to reduce overseas payments, though the decision to allow full foreign ownership is by far the biggest change of all. According to the MIIT, doing so “supports our country’s e-commerce development, encourages and brings in the active participation of foreign investment, and further excites market competition”.

2013 marked a milestone year for the country when it became the largest online retail market worldwide. Last year, overall sales reached approximately $440bn, according to a Forrester report, and the figures show also that China’s online spending will cross the $1trn mark before 2019, buoyed by a steady stream of apps and an improved logistics network. The latter is one area in which the rest of the world has a lot of catching up to do, given that same-day delivery is available in near enough every major city. Mobile technology, meanwhile, has seen a great deal of investment, as the sector’s leading names seek to cash in on growing smartphone adoption.

Major names Alibaba and JD have fast become industry powerhouses, not just in China but globally, and rivals Amazon and WalMart have each struggled to secure a strong foothold in the market. Alibaba’s Tmall enjoys a 57 percent share of the market, whereas JD enjoys a lesser 21 percent, leaving little in the way of opportunity for foreign names.

Elop departs as part of Microsoft reshuffle

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Little over a year into his tenure as head of Microsoft’s Devices and Studios business, the company has announced that the Canadian-born former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will be leaving after a designated transition period. The executive is one of three changes made to its senior leadership team. Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder will also be departing, as Microsoft looks to more closely align its engineering teams with its strategy and structure.

Elop was among the favourites to head Microsoft

“We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. The company’s ambitions are to reinvent productivity and business processes, to build an intelligent cloud platform, and finally create more personal computing. “This change will enable us to deliver better products and services that our customers love at a more rapid pace.”

Elop was among the favourites to head Microsoft before Satya Nadella was appointed to the role last year, and served as chief executive for Nokia between 2010 and 2014, becoming the first non-Finn to lead the company. Executive Vice President Terry Myerson is to be Elop’s replacement, taking charge of the newly formed Windows and Devices Group. Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie will continue to lead the Cloud and Enterprise team, whereas Executive Vice President Qi Lu will head the company’s Applications and Services Group.

In an email to employees, Nadella spoke of creating the best Windows experience possible, adding that Elop was a “strong advocate of the need to drive focus and accountability around the delivery of these experiences and has helped drive tighter alignment toward the ambition of more personal computing.”

Alibaba to launch Chinese Netflix

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

China’s e-commerce powerhouse, Alibaba Group, is preparing to launch Tmall Box Office, or TBO – a video streaming service for its set-top box, which can also be operated through smart televisions. The service will feature both domestic and foreign content, and like Netflix, Alibaba will also create its own films and programming. 10 percent of the content shown on TBO will be available for free, while the remaining 90 percent will be paid for through subscriptions or on a pay per view basis.

The video streaming market in China is already highly competitive

“Our mission, the mission of all of Alibaba, is to redefine home entertainment”, Liu Chunning, President of the Group’s Digital Entertainment Business, told reporters following the announcement. “Our goal is to become like HBO in the United States, to become like Netflix in the United States.”

The video streaming market in China is already highly competitive, with a number of big players on the scene, such as Tencent Holdings, Baidu Inc, iQiyi, Sohu.com and LeTV. Yet with demand on the rise and a target audience of 600 million homes, the potential for Alibaba’s new foray is still considerable, particularly when reviewing the figures. For example, year-on-year revenue growth for Q3 from 2013 to 2014 was 83.2 percent. According to the consultancy group, iResearch, revenues from the China online video market totalled 23.97bn Yuan in 2014 and are expected to more than triple to 90bn billion Yuan by 2018.

As part of an ongoing strategy to diversify the business, Alibaba’s founder and chief executive, Jack Ma, has been making bold steps into the entertainment industry and making various acquisitions, such as a $383m stake in the film company, Beijing Enlight Media. While, in June, Alibaba Pictures Group revealed that it will sell $1.57bn of its shares in order to fund other ventures. The ambitious entrepreneur has also been making visits to Hollywood it order to buy content and expand its entertainment offerings.

The news of Alibaba’s plans makes it even more unlikely that Netflix can enter the Chinese market. Before, the difficulty of foreign internet companies operating within the country stood in the way for Netflix. Now with the level of mounting competition and Alibaba’s TBO, it appears to be nigh impossible that a US company could make any headway. This being the case, it would seem prudent for Netflix to partner with Chinese firms instead, so as not to lose out on such a rapidly expanding market.

Twitter’s Costolo steps down; shares go up

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Twitter announced on June 11 that, after five years spent in the role, the company’s chief executive Dick Costolo has stepped down. The news follows a series of below-par results, the most notable of which perhaps being in April, when the company stopped short of Wall Street forecasts for revenue growth and racked up a net loss of $162m for the year. After struggling with user growth for little over a year and half now, Costolo decided that the time was right to stand aside.

The news was greeted positively by investors; with Twitter’s shares up more than seven percent in after hours trading

The news was announced first via a tweet, which read: “Our CEO, @dickc, will step down as CEO and we’ll welcome @jack as Interim CEO on July 1.” Jack Dorsey, who is the company’s co-founder and Chairman of the Board, will serve as Interim CEO while the board conducts its search for a successor.

“I am tremendously proud of the Twitter team and all that the team has accomplished together during my six years with the Company”, said Costolo in a statement. “There is no one better than Jack Dorsey to lead Twitter during this transition. He has a profound understanding of the product and Twitter’s mission in the world as well as a great relationship with Twitter’s leadership team.”

The news was greeted positively by investors; with Twitter’s shares up more than seven percent in after hours trading. Yet questions remain about whether the social media company can successfully monetise its services and boost its user base. eMarketer estimates put the company’s monthly user base growth at barely over 14 percent this year, down from 30 percent two years ago. Looking as far forward as 2019, the market research company believes the company’s global user growth will slump to six percent.

Twitter has long flaunted one billion users as its long-term target, yet they barely number over 300 million currently, with its best days, in terms of growth, almost certainly behind it. With growth off to a slow start this year and its shares trading at a price lower than at its debut, many analysts are cautious – if not pessimistic – about the company’s prospects.

Russia turns to Nordic neighbour for electricity

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

In a reversal of the traditional power supply relationship between the two countries, energy will flow from Finland to Russia for the first time on June 14 between 9am and 10pm. Negotiations for the transaction began last year as a result of the falling market prices in the Nordic region, thereby making it profitable for Russia to start importing from its Scandinavian neighbour.

Finland’s tumbling prices can be attributed to the recent upsurge in alternative energy supply

Following the bilateral trade agreement, a substation in Vyborg, a Russian city near the Finnish border, was equipped to import up to 320 MW per hour. It has been agreed Fingrid, Finland’s national operator, will begin with the provision of 140 MW of electricity – a 10th of the hourly supply that can be sent from Russia to Finland.

Finnish electricity prices are determined by the Nord Pool Spot, the region’s electricity exchange model, whereas Russian prices are influenced by a capacity charge, in addition to the Russian electricity exchange tariff. Given the difference in pricing variables between the two states, it is expected Russia’s new source will improve the reliability of electricity supply to the St Petersburg area.

Finland’s tumbling prices can be attributed to a power surplus experienced in the Nordic countries following the recent upsurge in alternative energy supply, namely in hydroelectricity, wind power and nuclear energy.

Finnish imports of Russian energy have gradually decreased in recent years in favour of exports from neighbouring Nordic countries. “For many years Finland has been importing Russian electricity, but that was when there was no direct link to market pricing. Now the market has started to play more of a part in electricity imports, with electricity also being traded through energy stock exchanges”, Timo Kaukonen, Planning Chief at Fingrid, told Finland’s national broadcaster Yle on Sunday.

Apple unveils new music streaming service

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Apple is gearing up to reshape the music business once again with its first foray into streaming services – as announced at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Apple Music, as it is to be known, was introduced onstage by the musician Drake, who said: “This is something that simplifies everything for the modern music musician like myself, and the modern consumer like you.” However, industry analysts are united in the opinion that the service will not revolutionise the industry in the same way iTunes managed at the turn of the 21st century, given that the service offers little in the way of additional features.

The music streaming business has fast become a crowded market

“We love music, and the new Apple Music service puts an incredible experience at every fan’s fingertips,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, in a statement. “All the ways people love enjoying music come together in one app – a revolutionary streaming service, live worldwide radio and an exciting way for fans to connect with artists.”

The music streaming business has fast become a crowded market, with Tidal being perhaps the most notable new addition, though none so far have managed to upset the dominance of Spotify – which has over 60 million active users and adds more than 20,000 new songs daily.

Nonetheless, paid streaming has yet to gain acceptance among the masses, and only one in five users pay for Spotify’s ad-free service currently. Apple, meanwhile, will be hoping that its new music app will succeed where Spotify and others have not, despite Steve Jobs’ scepticism that a music subscription service could work.

The release of Apple Music came alongside Apple Music Radio, the company’s first ever live radio station, to be broadcast live in over 100 countries and headed by a roster of impressive talent. Apple Music Connect also gives artists and fans the ability to share lyrics, backstage photos, videos and audio files, as part of the company’s push to emphasise community in getting the service off the ground.

Analysts have remarked that the service is unlikely to lure existing users away from competitors, with little in the way of differentiation, and the focus will fall more on bringing new customers to the fold. The app will be available on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC on a three-month trial basis, before users decide whether they want to fork out the $9.99 a month subscription fee.

EU Commission pledges to phase out animal testing

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

The EU Commission has responded to the ‘Stop Vivisection’ European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) and announced a plan of action in order to phase out animal testing in Europe.

While the commission has acknowledged that animal testing should stop in Europe, it plans to gradually reduce it over a prolonged period of time rather than introducing a complete ban.

The commission has pointed out the main aim of the EU’s rules on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes in Directive 2010/63/EU, which the initiative is attempting to repeal.

The commission’s response is a positive sign for animal rights activists across Europe

“The ‘Stop Vivisection’ Citizens’ Initiative comes at a time of transition – thanks to major technological advances, Europe is reducing the use of animal testing,” says Jyrki Katainen, Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness. “However, a complete ban on animal research in the EU would be premature and it would risk chasing out biomedical research from Europe.”

The commission’s response is a positive sign for animal rights activists across Europe and it will help accelerate progress in the area of replacing, reducing and refining the use of animals testing, as well as finding alternative approaches to it.

It is essential that all stakeholders, especially with the scientific community, are involved in the discussion to ensure the phase out is carried out effectively. The commission is in the process of organising a conference in 2016, so that all relevant stakeholders have the opportunity to meet, along with the presentation of a progress report on the actions taken so far.

In recent years, a number of technological advances have helped revolutionise biomedical research, allowing for a massive reduction in the need for animal testing.

However, there are still many complex physiological and toxicological processes and effects, which cannot be assessed via these alternatives methods. Therefore, there is still a need to carry out some tests on animals in order to protect human health, the environment, and continue to advance research.

“The ultimate aim of EU legislation is to phase out all animal testing,” says Commissioner Karmenu Vella, responsible for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. “In response to the Citizens’ Initiative, the European Commission is taking a number of actions to enable faster progress in the uptake and use of alternatives approaches.”

Evolent Health beats share expectations

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Evolent Health is the latest digital health firm to go public and fetch more than expected, according to Reuters, having raised $195.5m in an upsized IPO that puts the price of each share at $17. The figure is higher than the $14 to $16 range set out by the firm, and the 11.5 million shares are greater than the 10 million planned in the first instance.

The firm works with hospitals that pay doctors not for treatment but for keeping patients healthy

Judging by the aforementioned figures, the firm, which assists progressive healthcare systems in leading, building and owning their own path to value-based care, is worth some $950m. “Evolent provides the integrated technology, tools and team to advance value-based care,” according to the Virginia-based firm, namely by keeping to a strategic roadmap “that defines target markets, assesses needed clinical and operational capabilities, and is supported by a detailed business case.”

The firm works with hospitals that pay doctors not for treatment but for keeping patients healthy, as part of what Evolent calls a “progressive” healthcare system. Founded in 2011 by its principal two shareholders, UPMC Health Plan and The Advisory Board Company, Evolent ranked twelfth in Forbes’ list of America’s Most Promising Companies and third in Glassdoor’s list of Best Places to Work in 2015.

The firm is to list on the NYSE under the symbol ‘EVH’ and follows a number of similar such digital health firms, including Doximity, Best Doctors and Healthgrades, which, whilst different services, have each benefitted as a result of the shift to digital in healthcare. Last year, venture funding for digital health companies tipped the $4.1bn mark, equivalent to the previous three years combined, and, judging by the year so far, the upward trend looks set to continue.

‘Every single terminal’ in Europe to accept contactless by 2020

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

During its ‘Future of Payments’ event, Mike Cowen, the head of MasterCard’s emerging payment methods, explained how contactless payment systems will become commonplace across Europe by the end of the decade.

“It is moving at different paces in different parts of Europe,” Cowan told Trusted Reviews. “Last year we set out a couple of standards for the industry to try and achieved universal contactless acceptance across Europe within a sensible timescale.”

Governments across Europe have pushed for the installation more contactless payment terminals in a bid to limit the amount of physical cash in circulation. Proponents for a cashless society claim that it will help cut costs, enhance tax compliance and reduce crime.

So far, contactless payment terminals have been setup across 22 European countries and by the time 2019 rolls around, MasterCard predict that more than 195 billion transactions will be processed using smartphones.

“From the beginning of next year, any new payment terminal that gets deployed has to accept contactless,” says Cowen. “This is giving us a universal footprint where people will be able to use their phones to pay for stuff in this way.”

“By 2020, every single terminal will accept contactless,” he adds.